Electric Sheep
by vacant houses
Summary: It's a tale of a man, his pet dog and...his unwanted robot companion. Or: the one where Jazz is stuck on a bizarre planet with the strangest organic he has ever met.


A/N: Do not own either franchises and their respective characters.  
Set in the 2013 Riddick movie but crazily AU for both fandoms. For Transformers, it has influences of the 2007 movie but doesn't follow any of the events.

This unlikely xvover is extremely unlikely. But then the characters started talking in my head and said it was somewhat plausible. There's a plot somewhere, I think.

x

**Electric Sheep**

It was a ship.

Riddick pushed his goggles back, rested one foot on the large rock in front of him and blinked.

It didn't disappear.

He tilted his head at his dog and raised an eyebrow. "Good find."

Then he cranked his head back out of the hole and took a few steps back and re-evaluated the situation.

"Hope you've got a way of getting it out there. Because that bird is _stuck_."

x

Riddick didn't recognize the make of the ship, it didn't resemble anything he'd ever seen but he figured the thing had been buried in the cliff face for a really long time. It had probably been made during the early days of space-flight, hence the colossal size of the thing, to lug massive engines around that were capable of escaping atmosphere. The size of it, it probably was a colony ship, all set-up to claim a patch of humanity in the big black.

The fact it was here, inserted in a cliff, didn't spell anything good for its past and current flight capabilities. But, at the very least, Riddick figured he'd be able to scavenge something useful. A colony ship would have a pool of its own vehicles and that would make getting around on this no-name planet a lot easier.

Of course, that depended on whether it was worth the effort. The dog had found the ship whilst they were following a herd of what passed for this planet's herbivores. The canine had been pretty interested in a set of rocks at the base of the cliffs and wouldn't budge until Riddick had shifted enough aside to get a look inside. There were still a whole cliff-face of rocks to move and there was always the possibility of setting off a fatal avalanche.

All in all, he wasn't sure it was worth it.

Then again, it wasn't like he had anything else to do.

So digging it was.

A week's work and he'd enlarged the original hole enough that he was able to get a better view of the craft. He still didn't understand it though, the scale it seemed to have been built for was a hell of a lot larger than human. At this point however, the herd they'd been following across the plains began to move again and he halted the work. Having a reliable and good food source rated a lot higher on his priorities than possible death-trap with potentially interesting pay-off.

It was a month later when the herd swung close enough that Riddick could pick up the slack again.

x

"A positive sign," Riddick carefully examined the dish protruding out of the hole he'd made. It looked like a solar panel, a big one, so some part of the ship must have eventually activated simply by exposing the ship to some light. Pretty clever design too, mobile panels that could move to gather more to continue powering up the ship. He wasn't actually sure how it had managed to get fit through the hole though. Some sort of compacting and unfolding mechanism? It gave him some hope that most of the ship was intact and functional.

"Don't give me that look," he scolded the dog. He could feel the animal's skepticism as he ducked under the dish then he carefully jumped down into the crash site. As he straightened, he pushed his goggles back to bring the dim cave into focus. "You found it, you bought it."

The dog whined anxiously but followed him in. Riddick figured that if the cliff hadn't come crashing down while they were gone, that meant it was somewhat stable.

Hopefully.

He climbed carefully over rocks and boulders, balancing on them to make his way over to the ship. Carefully, he reached out and placed one hand on the metal. It was cold to the touch, the last time its engines were alive had been eons ago, there was no residual hum to tell him that part of the ship was active. But...he glanced back at the dish, the ship still was functional . Was working even though he couldn't...

There. There was something there, he could feel it. One vibrant, shimmering presence amidst a whole multitude of echoes. He'd always been sensitive to the living energies every creature carried but ever since Shirah had awoken that thing underneath his skin, his awareness had skyrocketed.

Riddick moved up along the side of the ship, tracking that life-pulse with the tips of his fingers. It wasn't like anything he'd ever felt before and that, more than anything, made him start to reconsider his initial impressions of the ship. He placed both palms on it and leant his full weight on it, eyes shut as he concentrated on his other senses. The metal-he didn't recognize the alloys. The scale and the architecture, neither suggested human construction or origin.

But who'd built such a thing? He'd never heard of anything like this before. Then again, he'd never heard of the Necromongers and Furya until Toombs had tracked him down to the UV system. The big black was just a pool of infinite possibility after all.

He opened his eyes and began to search for an opening, climbing up and leaving one anxious dog behind. The ship had actually come through the crash relatively intact. There were no gaping gaps, like the way the Hunter Gratnzer had been disemboweled. In fact…

The ship looked remarkable whole and undamaged despite carving a large hole in the face of the planet. The plates that made up its outer surface were scratched, no doubt about that, but he couldn't see any metal shorn off like it was missing comms or sensors. This just added to his suspicion that the ship's builders were never human.

He dropped to the ground and the dog was immediately by his side. "Easy there," he said, resting one hand on the canine's head. Riddick's silver eyes gave the ship one last sweep, confirming what he'd already known since he'd felt that life-pulse.

"Come on boy. It'll wake up soon but only when it's ready."

x

_Current damage: significant._

_Energon levels: critical._

_-Energon levels: critical.-_

_-Emergency reserves: 2 breems. Solar source located outside Ark-9. External environment: no hostilities detected. Autobot Jazz should relocate to external solar energy source.-_

Jazz onlined in a hurry, optics flicking on to the darkened ceiling of the Ark's medbay. His optics immediately cycled to the appropriate settings so he could see better. He glanced around, quickly taking in his situation. He was seated on a med-berth that had just drained most of the ship's reserves to revive him. Jazz disconnected the energon line to his port and rose unsteadily to his pedes. His first step was a stagger as his equilibrium sensors fed him conflicting information. Precious astroseconds slipped past as he fought to determine which way was up. Eventually, he spun off a patch to temporarily fix the problem in his gravometric sensors and managed to make it to the door.

_Emergency reserves: 1.5 breems_

Now to find an exit. It took a moment longer than he liked for Jazz to recall the schematics of the Ark but worrying about his frame's current state would have to come later. The walk out was short but it did serve to highlight the last things he could recall before he'd offlined.

A battle. The Decepticons. The Ark-9 damaged and spinning out of control. A random planet in the middle of Primus knows where.

The crash.

And then...nothing.

He stumbled down the exit ramp into a dark cave. Light shone in from a hole and he made his way over. The Ark had extended a solar dish out through the hole, which explained how the ship had built up enough of its reserves to revive him. Carefully, Jazz shifted some rocks out of the way, enlarging the hole enough so that he could squeeze out from underneath.

Sunshine warming his plates was a welcome feeling. It would take a long while to bring up his levels up and even longer still to kickstart his auto-repair. But for now, it was enough that he was online and aware.

_Emergency reserves: recharging._

He pinged the Ark's computer a query. He'd sensed no spark signatures on his way out but if the rest of the crew were in as deep a stasis as he'd been, there was a chance that some were still alive.

_-Unable to verify query.-_

Jazz very deliberately decided not to worry that he might be the only survivor from the crash. The Ark barely had enough power left and its internal sensors were probably down.

He ran a scan on the surrounding area, confirming the Ark's assessment of the place. Jazz could detect a few organic lifeforms but nothing big enough to concern him. He was the only Cybertronian in sensor range, a fact that was as comforting as it was unsettling.

Jazz moved down along the clifface and then climbed up to a position that guarded his back. He sat himself down on a boulder, exposing as much of himself as he dared to the sun, then shut himself down to recharge.

x

Riddick could honestly say he wasn't expecting the giant robot when he returned to the crash site a month and a half later. Both he and the dog went still as soon as the thing came into view. Riddick turned his chin up as he took in the situation. The robot was perched up in a defensible position a few hundred meters away from the cave. That solar dish was still poking out of the hole. Evidently, the ship had charged up enough juice to activate the robot. An automatic defense drone? It seemed likely. He'd seen a number in his time, stolen a few of them too and there was no mistaking the look even if it was an alien robot. That thing had been constructed with combat in mind.

He frowned. It's presence out here also meant that the front door to the ship could be open now. Of course, getting there would require sneaking past the drone. It didn't look to be in the best condition, its armor was mangled in some places, completely shredded in others. But that canon was pretty damn fucking huge. All it needed to do was got one shot in with whatever ammo it was loaded with and it was all over.

Riddick leant down and picked up a few rocks. Then he moved up to the cliff wall and settled behind some nice big boulders. He hurled a rock over it, aimed somewhere close to the robot's left.

It didn't twitch.

The Furyan contemplated the remaining rock in his outstretched arm. The robot was undoubtedly active. It had got itself up in the cliff-face after all. But. It was powering itself with solar energy.

Riddick's eyes narrowed to slits.

"Guess we'll have to come back later."

x

Jazz hadn't moved for about a decacyle.

With conserving energy his main priority, there hadn't been a need to move. Instead, he'd turned his processor to diagnosing all his systems, checking that everything was working whilst his self repair had set away at fixing his frame. He'd received the damage during the battle with the Decepticon and had been relegated to the medbay long enough that their medic had repaired most of the life threatening damage. Unfortunately, there was still plenty that required work, both physically and in his processor.

There was file corruption to deal with from his extended stay in emergency stasis. Both Jazz and the Ark had no idea how long it had been since the crash but it certainly been a very long time. Had Jazz the mind for it, he could have tried working something out by watching the stars and comparing it with the start charts before the crash. However he'd been occupied with patching most of his systems to get him into working order. His weapons had been his main priority and he was pleased that he'd managed to get his left canon working.

He was less pleased that he was unable to transform it back into a hand. But, at the very least, he wasn't defenseless. He could target, just barely though but it was enough.

All in all, it wasn't actually the worst situation he'd been in.

But it was coming pretty close.

The Ark was stocked with a few portable energon converters, he'd accessed the ship's manifest and checked it. The section they were in though had lost power and would require re-wiring before he could get access it, according to the ship's computers. The convertors would be useful, they were meant for transforming energy sources into energon with high efficiency, unlike the few solar nannites embedded into his armor plates. Until he was certain he could operate his hands effectively however, the convertors would remain out of reach. There was no point attempting repair work that could potentially damage the ship even more...unless his self repair was unable to correct the malfunctions in his hands. Most of their medical supplies had been used up prior to the crash though...scavenging was always an alternative.

He just didn't want it to be. He'd much rather wait out here a ridiculously long time, bringing up his energy levels so that his self-repair could slowly fix his frame than head inside and confirm that the rest of the crew was dead. The Ark had gathered enough energy to bring online another mech.

It hadn't.

He tried not to think about that too.

Something was caught on the edge of his motion trackers. At first, he paid it no heed, plenty of the native organics had come wandered close since he'd set himself up here. Instead he focused on chasing down a line of disobedient code, his chronometer was off by a decimal…

Several groons later, it happened again and his long term memory flagged a match on the pattern his motion trackers had picked up. Jazz mentally froze at the recognition.

_Human._

He cast his sensors open, trying to locate the sentient. This planet didn't have any sentient life, he could recall the information their frantic scans had picked up moments before the Ark had crashed.

So, what was a human doing here...?

Well, that was a question Jazz couldn't wait to hear an answer. Not to mention, defragging his processor was getting more than a little boring.

He delved into his linguistics files, digging around until he came upon a copy of 21st century English and a few other languages.

Jazz's optics turned on and he stood up.

Time to say hello.

x

Riddick had severely underestimated the robot's sensor range. Not that the darkness would have impeded its ability to detect him but he'd been hoping the lack of light would have shut down most of its processes to conserve energy. He was a few hillsides away when the thing suddenly stood up and turned in his direction without hesitation. It started walking and Riddick had a moment's indecision. Flee and hope that the thing ran out of charge before it caught him. Or stay here and wait to see what it would do. If he was inside its sensor range and it was hostile, it would have shot him from where it had been perched up in the cliff. That it hadn't was a positive sign.

Riddick hadn't lived this long by being the trusting sort.

He turned and ran.

x

Really, Jazz should have figured that would have happened. As it was, he didn't fancy his chances of setting after the human. He didn't quite trust his legs yet and his alt-form was completely out of the question. He should have waited for it to get closer before making a move. But it had just been so long and Jazz had never been one to sit back when there was socializing to be done.

"Hey, wait!" he called out before recalling that humans had pitifully limited hearing. He watched as the human paused for half a moment -perhaps it had heard him somehow- then it disappeared quickly out of sensor range. Jazz was actually rather surprised at the speed it had moved at, it didn't exactly fall within recorded human parameters, especially at night. Synthetic augmentation, microevolution, maybe?

Either suggested a significant time had past since he'd last seen Earth. Long enough for them to develop faster than light travel to get out all the way here. That technology had been several hundreds of years into their future, unless severe interference by a technologically advance race -Cybertronian, a deeply suspicious part of his processor suggested- had boosted their development.

Jazz settled back down again, stretching out a leg out in front of him. He checked his energy levels, then unsubspaced a repair kit he always carried around with him. It was not ideal, using the little fuel he had to make manual repairs instead of conserving it for later. But he did not know if there were more humans and from what he could he recall, they rarely travelled alone.

And they knew how to kill mechs.


End file.
